Marcos Breton on Sac High hoops

The Sac Bee's Marcos Breton offers a good feature on the Josiah Turner situation, incorporating the broader perspective and providing plenty of quotes from Coach Derek Swafford.

A feature on the Sac Dragons program

Bright future casts light on dreary day for Sac High coach
Ailene Voisin
Sacramento Bee
March 21, 2010

Derek Swafford is sleep deprived as it is. As the dean of students at Sacramento High School, a counselor and teacher at Sacramento City College, and coach of the Dragons' boys basketball team that came within two minutes of reaching the CIF Division III state championship, he doesn't have time to count sheep.

He counts layups, rebounds, free throws.

He tracks grades and attendance.

He even maintains a list of colleges pursuing highly regarded junior Josiah Turner, the latest in an expanding list of talented past and present prospects from Sac High, including San Diego State's Chase Tapley...

Go here for the remainder.

Inside Derek Swafford

Derek Swafford is one of the most fascinating coaches in the high school ranks with an inspiring backstory, some of it told here.

Sac High boys play, win by coaches' rules on and off court
Bill Paterson
Sacramento Bee
March 19, 2010

They didn't realize they were creating a basketball monster.

Sacramento High School head coach Derek Swafford and his key assistant Earl Allen took over the boys program in the 2000-01 season. It was wracked by turmoil, "with no schedule, no uniforms, no money and no discipline," Swafford said. It won nine of 26 games. Four players were booted off the team for behavior problems.

Since then, Swafford and Allen have engineered Sac High's metamorphosis into a perennial power. Now excellence is not just expected but demanded by their ever-growing fan base...

Go here for the remainder.